Fluorescent bulb tubes provide an efficient source of light. However, fluorescent tubes are generally employed in fixtures which include sheet metal housings of box-like configuration. Such housings tend to absorb a significant amount of the light efficiently produced by the fluorescent tube and to diffuse a significant other portion of the light so produced whereby to lower the overall efficiency of the system of the fluorescent tube and the fixture.
With the rising cost of energy encountered over the past decade or so, it becomes increasingly important to provide a fixture for fluorescent tubes or the like that takes greater advantage of the inherent efficiency of fluorescent bulbs or tubes. Indeed, most fluorescent fixtures are designed to utilize fluorescent tubes in pairs. It has been previously proposed to modify existing fluorescent fixtures so as to reduce the absorption of light by the fixture and its tendency to diffuse light to such a degree that the number of fluorescent tubes employed in the fixture can be halved without significantly reducing the amount of usable light produced by the modified fixture when compared with an unmodified fixture having twice the number of bulbs.
There have been previous attempts to achieve this goal, especially in U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,016, granted to Gallagher on June 16, 1987 for a Lighting Apparatus. In the Gallagher patent it is proposed to substitute one fluorescent tube for each pair in a fixture by tapping energy off of one of the original sockets and feeding that energy to a supplemental or additional socket for connection to the substitute single bulb per pair. Also employed in the Gallagher apparatus is a substitute reflector preferably shaped to simulate a parabolic reflector around the substitute bulb. The reflector is secured to the fixture housing by driving screws through the substitute socket and the ends of the reflector to secure the substitute socket and reflector to the housing. The substitute bulb is therefore held in the housing by the substitute socket which is screwed into the housing.
Experience with lighting apparatus of the type described and claimed in Gallagher has established that it is inconvenient to install and because of the construction of the portion of the apparatus for tapping energy from one of the original sockets to the additional socket, may not receive municipal government approval for such installation. Specifically, the problem of aligning the additional socket in the Gallagher apparatus so as to easily receive a substitute fluorescent bulb or tube is a difficult and time consuming one which has a significant impact on the overall labor costs for installing apparatus of the Gallagher type. Moreover, the apparatus for tapping electrical energy from the original socket and supplying it to the supplemental or additional socket includes exposed wiring which does not meet all municipal codes.